The impeccable sound of the Accession stereo phono stage preamp takes music from vinyl and sets it on a new higher pedestal – it's what all vinyl lovers will want to hear.

Previously overlooked technology has been perfected to extract much more of what's hidden in the music on vinyl records.

All is not what it seems...

The Accession MC (and MM) answer the age old question: "wouldn't a constant EQ slope be better?"

Yes it would! You see, RIAA EQ is a compromise built on the limitations of the 1950s, when one problem created another. And that's all because of the cartridge...

Simply put, magnetic cartridges don't have a flat output. News to you? Well it would be, as you've always been told different. Your cartridge might have come with a plot showing you how flat its output is? But they use a constant velocity test record!

The cartridge output actually rises by 60dB (one thousand times) between 20Hz and 20kHz. And to make it so valves could cope, RIAA obliged by putting a kink right in the middle of the record's frequency response and some boost in the lower bass. And it's been like that ever since, and probably always will.

You have a non-flat cartridge reproducing a non-flat record, all designed for 1950s reproducers, and you're spending a fortune expecting great results...?

Right to this day phono stages apply cut as frequencies increase, curtailing it for a couple of octaves in the mids (the RIAA "kink"), then continuing until some cut-off point. They treat the entire signal as if it's "the recording curve" (which it isn't). And each manufacturer has a preference for doing it actively, or passively, or both, or splitting the curve, and so on...